


Rules to Live By

by cordeliadelayne



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV), Marvel (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Avengers: Age of Ultron (Movie) Spoilers, Clint Barton-centric, Domestic, Family, Gen, Introspection
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-11
Updated: 2015-05-11
Packaged: 2018-03-30 00:44:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,932
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3916864
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cordeliadelayne/pseuds/cordeliadelayne
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After everything that went down with Ultron, Clint knows what to rely on to keep him grounded.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Rules to Live By

**Author's Note:**

> Takes place after Age of Ultron so spoilers for that and vague spoilers for most of season two of Agents of SHIELD.

There were few things that Clint considered absolutes. On joining SHIELD his world view had twisted, and since joining the Avengers it had been tipped entirely on its head. But he had a few good stars he could steer by.

**1\. Fury lies.**

On Clint's first visit to the Triskelion he'd actually expected “Fury Lies” to be emblazoned above the entrance way. The man collected secrets like Hydra grew heads, so the fact that he'd apparently kept a Helicarrier hidden was no great surprise. (Clint had only had to look at Nat's face after SHIELD fell to know Fury's death had been a lie). Never accepting what Fury said at face value was just something he'd had to get used to. Which lead directly on to his second rule to live by.

**2\. Never underestimate Phil Coulson.**

They'd come after his family, shadows in the night, playing an angle, going for maximum casualties. Only new SHIELD had intercepted their message, got his family to safety while he was out on a mission, and now Phil Coulson was sitting in his kitchen, drinking a cup of coffee.

“Alien DNA?” Clint asked, for what seemed like the hundredth time.

Coulson nodded. “Skye, could you...”

A young SHIELD agent stepped forward and handed Clint a tablet. On it was the report for the recovery of Coulson's body. Clint felt a deep stab of something in his heart and had to brace one hand against the kitchen counter.

“Sorry, sorry,” Coulson said, standing up and putting a hand on the small of Clint's back. “I thought reading about it might be better.”

Clint shook his head. “Nope.” He moved away from Coulson and retrieved the good whisky from its hiding place. “Tell me.”

And so Coulson did.

**3\. Laura sees better than he does.**

It took ten days before Clint and SHIELD had made sure that his family was no longer in danger. He and Laura had spent two nights discussing whether they should move, but the attackers were all dead and the only people alive who knew their location were the Avengers and now, Coulson's team.

“I like them,” Laura had said.

“Yeah?” Clint had asked, half-heartedly helping her clean up the kid's toys.

“Yes. Phil deserves a family.”

Clint's brow had furrowed and Laura had pressed a soft kiss to his cheek.

“They're what the Avengers could be if you all stopped bickering for more than five minutes.”

Clint found he couldn't disagree.

**4\. Nat just pretends to know everything.**

Eleven days after his family were attacked Clint went to find Nat at the New Avengers Facility. She was just finishing up a weapons training class when he walked in and she shook her head at him.

“If you've come down here just to show off...”

“Would I?...Okay, don't answer that. You ready for lunch yet?”

She shrugged. “I could eat.”

She dismissed the class and Clint smiled to himself. He'd never thought of Nat as a teacher before, but she really was a natural.

“So,” she asked as they walked down towards the Mess Hall. “What's new?”

“Coulson's alive.”

Nat stopped dead in her tracks and Clint filed away her expression for posterity.

“Son of a bitch.”

**5\. There are few people more worthy of admiration than Captain America.**

“Our mission is a simple one, protect those who cannot protect themselves. Every life is precious, every life is important. There is no acceptable collateral damage. We fully accept the need for accountability...” Steve trailed off. “I don't know, should I be bringing that in this early?”

He turned to look out at the almost empty hall. Natasha and Maria Hill were sitting in the front row, taking notes. Clint was hanging back in the shadows, amusing himself by watching Steve practise for the next day's press conference.

“I'd vote for him,” Coulson said, slipping into the room besides Clint.

“A no-brainer if ever I heard one.”

Coulson smiled and bumped shoulders with Clint. “How's the family?”

“Good. Yours?”

Coulson only hesitated a fraction before replying. “They're good too, thanks.”

“You know, I never really said, but...I'm glad you’re not dead.”

Coulson blinked, tantamount to full on surprise on anybody else.

Clint sighed. “Really? How long have we known each other?”

“Me being around makes all this a bit more complicated, doesn't it?” He looked over to the stage where Steve was now peering into the corner where they were standing.  
  
“Complicated doesn't have to mean bad. C'mon, Steve could do with some support.”

Clint started to move towards the stage and then pointedly stopped and waited until Coulson began to follow.

“Look who I found!” Clint called out.

“Director Coulson,” Steve said with a nod. “Perhaps you could look over my speech, make sure we're all on the same page.”

“It's Phil,” Coulson replied. “And of course, I'd be happy to.”

Clint grinned at Nat, who rolled her eyes at him. Coulson didn't have eyes for either of them.

**6\. People with powers are still people.**

“Magic Idol? American Quake? Vision Quest?”

“All terrible,” Nat declared.

Clint mock pouted. “I'd like to see you do better.”

“What's wrong with Preliminary Powers Exercise?” Coulson asked.

Clint made a disgusted face. “I thought you wanted people to sign up, not put them off.”

Coulson ignored him in favour of watching Skye and Wanda sparring, using only their powers. There were so many red sparks flying around it was hard to see what was happening, but Skye appeared to be more than holding her own.

Training over the two young women came over to join them.

“Not bad,” Nat said. She handed over the score sheets she'd been marking. “Wanda, you’re still not protecting your flank enough. Skye – your balance is still off – you have to use all of your senses, not just some of them.”

Skye and Wanda nodded and started pouring over their reports. Clint shared a warm look with Coulson.

It felt good to be sat there, out in the sunshine of the training ground, the sounds of dedicated people going about their normal day echoing all around them. It felt a lot like SHIELD had in the early days; though Clint could never claim to have been as dedicated to it as either Coulson or Natasha, it still felt a lot like home.

**7\. Maria Hill sees everything.**

“Have you spoken to Stark recently?”

Clint looked up from the unrecognisable food item on his plate and frowned, wondering why the Avengers Facility had the same terrible taste in cooks as every other agency he'd ever worked for. “Should I have done?”

“Maybe.”

Clint waited for more but apparently Maria was done.

“I'll pay him a visit.”

“Good.”

She nodded and then walked off, seemingly ignoring everyone around her, though Clint knew better. If Maria was asking about Stark, shit was definitely about to hit the fan.

**8\. Tony Stark's heart is always in the right place, even if his brain isn't.**

“Do I want to know what you're doing?” Clint asked.

“No,” Tony replied.

Anyone else and Clint might have thought they were joking. With Tony he knew better than to expect an explanation until he was ready. As it was he casually walked around Tony's lab, trying to remember as much of what he was seeing as he could. It felt an awful lot like spying, but if Tony's recent actions were anything to go by there was no one more worthy of being spied on.

“We need a brand new way of thinking about global defence,” Tony was saying. “An infallible system.”

“Nothing's infallible,” Clint pointed out.

“And there's the challenge. Machines aren't the answer. I can see that now. Not like Ultron. There was a flaw I hadn't anticipated, but I know what went wrong. That's a good start.”

Clint nodded. “But you can't save everyone.”

“Cap and Coulson would disagree.”

“They sacrificed themselves for the greater good. The fact that they came back doesn't lesson the good their deaths did.”

Tony waved a hand of dismissal at him and turned back to his computers. Clint watched for a little while but Tony looked like he'd completely forgotten he was still there.

With a heavy heart Clint left him to it, and headed back to the Farm.

**9\. There's no place like home.**

After a childhood of foster homes and travelling with the circus, a teenage Clint could never have imagined having somewhere he could always go when he needed to, with a family he'd die to protect. He'd often sit on the porch in the early hours of the morning, a blanket wrapped around his shoulders as he watched the world around him spring to life. Sometimes Laura would join him. Rarer still, one of the kids. They'd sit and stare at this thing that was theirs, this patch of earth that was so much more than just somewhere to lay their heads, and everything would seem possible.

**10\. You can never take back what you've done, only learn from it.**

“Do you ever regret it?” Clint asked one evening. The stars were out and the porch where he and Coulson was sitting was bathed in soft moonlight. He'd counted 6 toys that needed to be brought inside before Coulson answered him.

“Regret what?”

“Recruiting me.”

Coulson frowned but seemed to be considering the answer, which Clint appreciated. They'd never really spoken about it, what SHIELD's fall had meant, how he felt about his place in the Avengers, but it had been on Clint's mind a lot lately.

“Do you regret it?”

Clint looked over at Coulson. “You first.”

Coulson looked even more unhappy. “No, I don't. Never, for one second, have I ever regretted bringing you in that day. I meant what I said.”

“You're better than this,” Clint quoted. “Funny that it only took four words before I could see there might be a way out.”

“You just needed someone to believe in you.”

Clint was shaking his head before Coulson had even finished speaking. “I needed to be reminded it was okay to believe in myself.”

“So, you don't regret me bringing you into SHIELD?”

“Now, no. The day SHIELD fell, well, then I might have lobbed a few curses your way.” Clint moved closer to Coulson, sharing body heat. “It must have been worse for you. I bet when they opened you up they found SHIELD written right the way through.”

Coulson huffed a small laugh. “It wasn't anybody's finest hour. There are some choices I'd do over if I could. But...”

“But you can't change the past,” Clint finished.

“If you two have finished being maudlin,” Laura interrupted, stepping out of the front door, “you should get inside. The press conference is about to start.”

Clint and Coulson both got up right away and followed Laura inside.

“Do you know what Tony's going to say?” she asked Coulson.

“No. Pepper said she didn't know either.”

“And you said we didn't have anything to worry about,” Clint told Laura. He sat down next to her and pulled her close, planting a kiss in her hair. He could practically hear the way Coulson was smiling at them both as he sat down and reached for the remote, turning the sound up just as Tony was introduced on to the stage.

Clint had the decided feeling that whatever Tony was about to announce, nothing was ever going to be the same again.

But that was okay. They'd cope, just like they always did. With a few good stars to guide them along the way.


End file.
